TechPress
No Result
View All Result
Monday, March 27, 2023
  • Login
  • Home
  • Science
  • Tech
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Press Release
  • Gaming
Subscribe
TechPress
  • Home
  • Science
  • Tech
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Press Release
  • Gaming
No Result
View All Result
TechPress
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

Can playing video games make you smarter?

Research highlights six key principles for better learning

by TechPress
January 19, 2023
in Opinion
124 9
0
Can playing video games make you smarter?
152
SHARES
1.9k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

If you spend more than an hour a day playing video games, that’s 5 percent of your life. Will this time investment do anything good for your brain?

This is a question that my colleagues and I at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have been studying for the past two decades. We want to know whether playing video games can increase cognitive skills: In other words, can game playing make you smarter? We have performed experiments, conducted meta-analyses of research literature and even produced a couple of books: Computer Games for Learning and Handbook of Game-Based Learning.

The results have been surprising — with some bad news, good news, even better news, and some prospects for the future based on rigorous scientific research.

My team focuses on what I call cognitive consequences experiments. Our researchers take a group of people and give them a test that assesses some cognitive skill, like attention, perception, mental flexibility, spatial processing, reasoning or memory. Then we split the group in half. One half plays a video game targeting that skill for two or more hours over many sessions; the other half engages in some other activity, like playing a word-search game. Then we give them all the same test again.

First, the bad news. A careful review of published scientific research shows that most off-the-shelf video games do not improve cognitive skills. This holds true for strategy games, adventure games, puzzle games and many brain-training games.

Next, the good news. There appears to be one genre of commercial games that can improve cognitive skills — and it might surprise you. Playing action video games, including first-person shooter games, can continually exercise your perceptual attention with immediate feedback, under a variety of ever-changing contexts, and with increasing levels of challenge.

Finally, even better news. Some research groups are having success making nonviolent learning games that work. Our lab, for example, has partnered with the CREATE Lab at New York University to develop games using evidence-based theories. In one, All You Can ET, space creatures fall from the sky and you must shoot up food or drinks depending on ever-changing rules. This trains “task switching” or what some people call multitasking — an executive function skill associated with academic success.

We have found that playing All You Can ET  for as little as two hours improved task-switching skills more than playing a word-search game for the same amount of time. All You Can ET  is available for free on Google Play Store for Android and on the Apple App Store (we do not receive any income from the game).

A few other labs have seen similar successes. Neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley and his team at the University of California, San Francisco, for example, created NeuroRacer: a car-driving multitasking game that has been shown to train attention control skills in older adults. That technology was used by a company to develop EndeavorRx, targeted to help kids with attention deficits. In 2020, that became the first-ever video game approved for medical marketing by the FDA, available by prescription.

Why do these games work while others do not? Our games are designed with six principles: focus on a well-specified target skill, provide repeated practice, give immediate feedback, maintain increasing levels of challenge, provide varying contexts for exercising the skill and make sure the game is enjoyable.

With studies like these in hand, we can look forward to a future when researchers and developers collaborate to construct fun games that train specific cognitive skills. Then that hour a day of play really will make you smarter.

Tags: ComputersGames
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Top 10 Best Web Hosting Companies In Zimbabwe 2023

Top 10 Best Web Hosting Companies In Zimbabwe 2023

January 23, 2023
Google’s Stadia Controller Bluetooth support is available now

Google’s Stadia Controller Bluetooth support is available now

January 18, 2023
The First Hour of Forspoken Gameplay Has Been Leaked

The First Hour of Forspoken Gameplay Has Been Leaked

January 19, 2023
A Local Online Bookstore Where You Can Buy and Sell Books Using Ecocash

A Local Online Bookstore Where You Can Buy and Sell Books Using Ecocash

January 21, 2023
2023 will be the year of the display era

2023 will be the year of the display era

0
Google’s Stadia Controller Bluetooth support is available now

Google’s Stadia Controller Bluetooth support is available now

0
The Biggest Gaming News For January 16, 2023

The Biggest Gaming News For January 16, 2023

0
Microsoft set to lay off thousands of employees in 2023

Microsoft set to lay off thousands of employees in 2023

0
Google announces Bard A.I. in response to ChatGPT

Google announces Bard A.I. in response to ChatGPT

February 7, 2023
Top 10 Best Web Hosting Companies In Zimbabwe 2023

Top 10 Best Web Hosting Companies In Zimbabwe 2023

January 23, 2023
A Local Online Bookstore Where You Can Buy and Sell Books Using Ecocash

A Local Online Bookstore Where You Can Buy and Sell Books Using Ecocash

January 21, 2023
Twitter officially bans third-party clients with new developer rules

Twitter officially bans third-party clients with new developer rules

January 21, 2023

Newsletter

To stay on top of the ever-changing world of business, subscribe now to our newsletters.

*We hate spam as you do.

Categories

  • Business
  • Economy
  • Gaming
  • Opinion
  • Press Release
  • Science
  • Tech

Site Navigation

  • Home
  • Advertisement
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Other Links
TechPress

TechPress reports on the latest innovations and developments taking place in tech, science and industries and the challenges they face every day.

© 2023 TechPress. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Advertisement
  • Contact Us
  • Science
  • Economy
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Gaming
  • Tech
  • Health

© 2023 TechPress. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In